The long-awaited Ri-shuffle will continue tomorrow as Sunak shuffles the junior ranks in his election personnel team. The election Cabinet appears to be set as of tonight. Braverman’s ejection has her allies restless and plotting. The ball is in their court…
Cameron’s surprise appointment, which was brokered by Sunak consigliere William Hague, is meant to give Sunak more space for domestic policy. Cleverly is said to be frustrated with the loss of the FCDO brief and has already taken on a different tone to Braverman. No one is surprised at Coffey’s departure, which took a mammoth 2 hours and 45 minutes to be confirmed. Chief Secretary to the Treasury John Glen said he was “alarmed” about the tax burden and found himself out of a job four days later. Greg Hands was sent to the Department for Trade to serve there for the 4th time. One of the stranger reshuffle days, this is apparently the big plan for the campaign…
Team Sunak operatives Richard Holden, Victoria Atkins, and Laura Trott get new jobs. A crop of ministers looking to leave Parliament resigned – ACOBA rules mandate a 6-month wait between leaving government and taking a new job. An indication they are expecting the election to happen in May…
Greg Hands has sent a letter to Starmer formally requesting that Labour call on trade unions with links to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, or its weekend marches, to disaffiliate from it. The letter echoes one sent by the Campaign Against Antisemitism last week and labels the PSC an “extreme activist” organisation which “espouses views that encourage the anti-Semitism and violence we are witnessing“. Hands specifically attacks Aslef, GMB, the NEU, and Unite for their intimate interaction with the PSC. Their links are deep and long-held…
Hands points out that trade union leaders are “outwardly disobeying advice from Labour’s General Secretary” by speaking at the weekend marches and are therefore bringing Labour into disrepute. Meanwhile RMT head Mick Lynch, along with the heads of the National Education Union and Fire Brigades Union, have released a video announcing their support the “National March for Palestine” on Saturday. Starmer’s hands-off approach is resembling a tightrope act…
Read the full letter below:
One month after Hamas launched its attack against Israel, James Cleverly has found himself as the favourite cabinet minister among party members for the first time, with his net satisfaction ratings scoring an impressive +71.8 points, according to a poll by Conservative Home. Cleverly didn’t have a huge media presence before last month, though his increased online and media visibility in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war has boosted his ratings by 20 points. Cleverly isn’t campaigning for the leadership, though MPs may yet end up thinking him the safest choice…
Cabinet Ministers in the red include Jeremy Hunt, whose refusal to budge on tax cuts hasn’t found favour with party faithful, giving him a -23 points, and Therese Coffey, whose rating is an unfair -27 points. CCHQ will be disappointed with much loved Party Chairman Greg Hands’ low score of -15.5. Rishi is still scoring low at 7.1 points, though he’ll forlornly hope that his ratings may see a boost after the King’s Speech today. Stay tuned…
Apart from Andy Burnham complaining of Mancs being treated as “second class citizens,” a few Tory cabinet ministers might be suffering from the HS-Blues this week as Sunak cancels the rest of the project in what Greg Hands noted would be called “a sign of our decline”. His head was presumably in his hands as the northern leg was axed…
HS2 is absolutely vital. Totally agree w @andy4wm. Post Brexit we must be AMBITIOUS for our country and hungry for our economy. What signal would it send if we cancelled our highest profile infrastructure project and weakened our commitment to share prosperity around the country? https://t.co/wqvlNAm3YQ
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) May 20, 2019
Thérèse Coffey warned back in 2011 that to “dump HS2 saves cash now but N/S divide deepens”. Grant Shapps must have sympathy for Burnham, especially as he justified the decision to cancel the Leeds leg by arguing that “Manchester is a principal beneficiary of this entire programme”. In Jeremy Hunt’s words, “what signal would it send if we cancelled our highest profile infrastructure project and weakened our commitment to share prosperity around the country?”
Yesterday Guido reported on the Tories’ eyebrow-raising decision to exclude Susan Hall, their own London Mayoral candidate, from a main stage speaking slot at Conference. Given the Mayoral election is just months away, this seems like an open goal…
Guido hears Greg Hands is insisting it’s not a personal snub, and a decision was made to restrict the main hall slots to only members of the Cabinet. This, of course, doesn’t make sense: Andrew RT Davies and Douglas Ross have slots, and last time Guido checked, neither is in the Cabinet…
The Tories should be throwing everything they have at the London election. It is not a guaranteed win for Sadiq, as recent polling shows, and the ULEZ has proven wildly unpopular. In fact when the ULEZ came online last month, Rishi immediately blamed Khan and insisted he couldn’t do anything about it himself. So why isn’t he publicly backing the one person on the Tories’ side who can? Beating Labour in London could upend the narrative at the General Election…
Greg Hands has been sending out invites to his conference Chairman’s Reception. MPs, hacks, and Tory party fans will get a chance to mingle. Guido is pleased to note that prestigious retirement planning firm Phoenix Group is sponsoring. Should be useful…
Perhaps Hands is hoping that Tory fortunes can rise from the ashes…
